Living in Dryden

Carl Carmer, of Dryden

Dryden's used bookstores always seem to have a fair number of copies of Carl Carmer's books on New York. My Kind of Country is a compendium of his articles, and I remembered one article - "Upstate is a Country" - well. I went back to look it up, and this is what I found.

The happiest entry into New York State, my grandfather used to say, is to be born there. The only disadvantage, he would add, is that you will not realize your enviable lot until you have grown old enough to travel and see how much less fortunate the natives of other regions are. Since he wore the long white beard of a patriarch and unfailingly served buckwheat pancakes and maple sirup for breakfast, I received his every word as gospel. Indeed, my boyish pride in New York was fortified on each of my frequent visits to his home in Dryden, in the center of the state, especially when reminded me, as he did invariably, that my very birth might have occurred uncomfortably, high on a Tompkins County hill, had not his team of white-faced York-State-bred Morgans made a record dash to the Cortland Hospital.

Carmer didn't stay in Dryden very long, but the place (and his grandfather) clearly had an effect on him. (My Kind of Country is still in print.)